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Will to Give is dedicating the first week in November to promoting an increasingly popular way of giving, leaving a charitable gift in your Will.

To launch this week, people in the city centre are being invited to write what their favourite cause is and why on the chalkboard.

Gillian Parker is one of Will to Give’s group of ambassadors.

Sharing her story of why she has committed to leaving a gift in her Will to charity, she said: "Over the last three years, working for Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke, I have met a number of people with long-term health conditions.

"But the ones that have had the most effect on me are the people my own age who have survived a stroke. So many times, I have either done a quick calculation in my head or been told someone’s age, and have realised they are the same age as me.

"I am 48 years old. I love my life, my family, my friends, my work, my holidays, doing what I want when I want and I can’t imagine how awful it must be to have those things suddenly ripped away from you.

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"To have to learn to walk and talk again. To experience changes in your personality that upset your loved ones and frustrate yourself. To suddenly have all your hopes and dreams for the future - your family life, career or even retirement - swept away must be very difficult to cope with, both for you and your partner and family.

"Even those who make a good recovery are left with a very deep fear that it will happen again, and next time it may be worse. Their stroke defines the rest of their lives one way or another.

"So many people I have met have told me that without Northern Ireland Chest Heart & Stroke they would never have regained their lives. They tell me how they were almost resigned to the fact that their life was over – at this age!

"But yet we provided the light at the end of the tunnel, the hope that things could improve, and the understanding and support to get there. If, and I really hope it never does, something like this happens to me, I would be very grateful that someone before me had left money in their Will so that, even though their own life was over, I could be given mine back."

Join Will to Give @WilltoGive on Facebook and Twitter #mycause and share your cause and why it is close to your heart.

Email info@willtogive.org for more information or visit the website www.willtogive.org.